Mantras are special sound formulas that work because of how Reality is constructed

Mantra: The Art of Meditation

by Sal DiPasquale

According to Imre Vallyon in his book The Art of Meditation, human beings are schizophrenic. That is, we exist as a Soul enjoying its immortal existence in Light Consciousness and as a personality structure with mental, emotional and physical faculties living its limited life on the physical world. There is a vast gap in consciousness between these two existences, considering that the personality has no awareness of its existence as a Soul, and between our existence as a Soul and our spiritual origins as Pure Spirit. To bridge that gap— to know oneself first as a Soul and then cross the divide and know oneself as the Pure Spirit—is the purpose of meditation.

Vallyon points out that the main obstacle to achieving this is the personality structure itself. Our mental, emotional and physical functions were designed so that we could function in the physical world, not to sense the subtler energies of our spiritual roots, so our attention is turned outward. To know who we truly are, therefore, we must turn inward and transcend our personality structures; we must go beyond our emotions and thoughts. That is what the process of meditation is all about.

There are many forms of meditation, but since time immemorial the most easily accessible and universal type is Mantra Yoga. Mantras are special sound formulas that work because of how Reality is constructed. From the smallest or densest particle in the Lower Creation to the subtlest or highest level of consciousness in the Higher Creation everything is a product of Sounding-Light Vibration, the Primordial Energy of Creation, or in Christian terminology, the Divine Word. Mantras are special frequencies of that Sounding-Light and they work directly on our consciousness, helping us to still our breath, still our mind, and then move beyond the mind to the level of Soul-Consciousness.

This is the starting point of our long journey back to our spiritual source, and it is the most difficult part. Vallyon likens this to the booster rockets required to lift a space capsule into orbit. A lot of energy is required to break the bonds of the personality and know oneself as a Soul. But once we are operating from Soul Consciousness, the rest of the journey will not be so arduous. And at the end we will have realized our divine destiny and, in the author’s words, “be like the Buddha and the Christ: divine embodiments connecting the highest and lowest realities, in service to Creation with the power of Wisdom and Love inside us.”


Sal DiPasquale has been a member of Imre Vallyon’s spiritual school (The Foundation for Higher Learning, or FHL) for 20 years. Raised a Roman Catholic and having studied Zen meditation in Japan for 7 years, DiPasquale was drawn to Imre’s universal approach to spirituality. He has edited three of Imre’s books and is working on a fourth, and has recently assumed the role of general manager of the publishing arm of the spiritual school, Sounding-Light Publishing, Ltd.

Imre Vallyon is the author of the books 'Heavens and Hells of the Mind' and 'The Art of Meditation'. Imre Vallyon's bio is as follows:

Imre George Vallyon (born 1940) is a New Zealand based author in the Mind, Body and Spirit market. In 2008 he won the Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust Book Award for his four volume treatise “Heavens and Hells of the Mind”, which the judges described as “a remarkable and exhaustive work on human consciousness and the wisdom of the ages.”

The Charitable Trust Book Award, one of the largest prizes for literature in New Zealand, is offered by the New Zealand Ashton Wylie Charitable Trust in conjunction with the New Zealand Society of Authors and recognizes “excellence in the mind, body and spirit genre”.

Vallyon is the founder of the Foundation for Higher Learning, an international spiritual school formed to help provide people with the opportunity to practice spiritual work within a group environment, and the director of Sounding-Light Publishing, which was founded in 2006 “to produce high-quality books and multimedia for those who feel an affinity for universal wisdom and multi-disciplinary knowledge”.

Vallyon is a full member of the New Zealand Society of Authors.